A limitation arises with drill rings having on-board drill pipe storage devices (otherwise known as carousels) when it is required to drill a hole at some orientation other than vertical. In a typical drill rig, the carousel is located within the tower structure and during angle drilling, wherein tower itself is tilted at an angle to accomplish the drilling by lining up with the drill string, a problem of supporting and aligning the lower end of the drill pipe has occurred.
The limitation referred to above occurs when taking drill pipe out of the carousel to add the drill string already in the hole. While the top of the drill pipe is attached to the spindle of a typical rotary head the lower end of the drill pipe will still be lying in the carousel due to the angular orientation of the tower and the effect of gravity. This condition is shown in phantom in FIG. 1. To resolve this situation some means must be provided to lift the lower end of the drill pipe and bring it in line with the drill string.